Donald Glover Sells Atlanta-Based Comedy To FX

Almost a month ago, Donald Glover announced that he would only be appearing in less than half of the episodes of Community in Season 5. The talented actor, writer, and rapper has a lot on his plate, and with Community dropping down to 13 episodes this season, it makes sense that Glover might look elsewhere for a project. At the time, however, it remained to be seen what sort of project he might want to be involved in. On Tuesday, it was revealed that the actor already has plans in the works to put together a project with FX.

The comedy project is currently rolling under the title Atlanta, but that could change over the coming months. A lot about the series seems pretty tentative. According to Deadline, the comedy will be based on Glover’s knowledge about Atlanta (he grew up there) and will follow plotlines surrounding the Atlanta music scene.

The outlet is also reporting that several different stations were interested in pursuing the project with Glover, but that he ultimately opted to deal with FX since the network was willing to work around his Childish Gambino touring schedule and other TV schedule issues stemming from the rapper’s musical career. No doubt this is similar to the deals FX has made with some of its stars in the past, namely Louis C.K., who has taken a hiatus from filming Louie that will extend until the spring of 2014 in order to pursue comedy. If FX wants a creative talent, the network will make it work.

Glover wants to be pretty hands on with the Atlanta, because he plans to write, executive produce, and star in the vehicle. To do this formerly, he would have needed both time and a release from his Community contract, but now FX has given him the schedule freedom he needs and NBC has released him from his exclusive contract with the show.

While Glover has moved on to hopefully greener pastures, he will pop up in a few installations of Community in Season 5, appearing in at least five episodes. This hopefully means we’ll get a few more memorable moments between Troy and Abed.

Community isn’t set to return to NBC’s schedule until the spring season, which means it will be a while before Glover makes it back on to the small screen, whether or not Atlanta is greenlighted to series. Still, we’re rooting for the actor, and we’ll keep you posted if Atlanta moves forward to pilot or gets a name change.